Crossing the Lines
by Ponderess
Summary: As a 7 year old, Amelia Pond met a mad man with a blue box. He called himself the Doctor and claimed his box was bigger on the inside and could travel through time and space. He said he would be back after 5 minutes and then take her along. 12 years later Amy Pond has given up on believing in her raggedy Doctor when a stranger in a suit and trenchcoat comes for her... Doctor/Amy
1. Part I: Strange Familiarity

**Crossing the Lines  
**

_Part I: Strange Familiarity_

He was a stranger in town. Anyone who looked at him could tell. Leadworth was not the kind of place where you could combine a suit with a trench coat and white sneakers without everyone noticing. And if you would still wear it without caring what people say, the people would care so much that everyone would know your face in the course of a few days. But no one here had seen his face before, so he probably was in Leadworth for the first time.

Amy watched how he walked along the road, meeting the people's offended gaze when passing him and noticing his choice of clothing. He did not seem bothered, though. Once or twice she could've sworn seeing a faint smile grazing his lips as people looked away in order to avoid eye contact.

But maybe her eyes tricked her, because mostly his facial expression was stern, and the narrowed eyebrows had something gloomy about them. Maybe that intimidated people and led them to lower their gaze. Even Amy felt the need to look away when his eyes locked with hers. But she was too intrigued by this man – and too stubborn – to break eye contact like she was a shy dog. And maybe this was what caused him to slightly change his direction and walk straight towards her.

"Hello," he said, as he came to a halt in front of her.

"Hello," Amy replied sceptically. Close up, she realised there was a sadness in his eyes like he had experienced great loss and sorrow. But his voice was untouched by this as he spoke.

"I'm looking for Amelia Pond."

"I'm Amelia and who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"You're… the Doctor?"

Amy thought she must've misunderstood him, but he let no doubt about it.

"Yes."

The astonishment that first had shown in her face, turned into anger.

"Do you think this is funny?"

"Why? Am I laughing? You think that?" She was so baffled by his reaction that she could not respond. "No? Good, because – to get this straight – my joking-face looks quite different."

"Then why would you claim to be the Doctor?"

"What? Sorry, did I miss something? Is 'the Doctor' a new word for 'clown' – or your equivalent of a clown – that you assume I must be joking when I say that I'm the Doctor?"

Amy stepped closer and stared straight into his eyes with determination. "When I was seven, I met a man. He said he was called the Doctor. He also said he was travelling through time and space and that I could come with him. And I believed him, because I was a kid. I believed that he'd take only five minutes and then he would come back and take me with him. _For five years _I believed that he would return, but he didn't."

He clenched his jar. "I'm sorry."

"What?" Amy swayed backwards. His simple apology came unexpected and seemed somehow out of place.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back as I promised."

"No." Amy shook her head. "No, you should be sorry you're keeping up this act of yours. _You_ are _not_ the Doctor. You don't even look like him, so don't you tell me you are _my_ raggedy Doctor." She turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm and held her back.

"Wait. Listen to me. I am the Doctor. I'm a Timelord. I travel through time and space, and once my body is dying, I regenerate into a completely new form. That's why you don't recognise me. But I'm still the same person."

Amy shook her head again and tried to free her arm. She had to get away from him. This was too much for her.

"Let go of me," she said, as she couldn't get her arm out of his grip. He opened his mouth to respond, but she didn't want to hear it. "Just let go of me!"

And he did.

"Sorry. I didn't want to upset you or make you angry."

"Yeah? Maybe you should've left me alone then." Amy already started walking backwards while she was still looking at him. Then she turned, ready to run, but his next words made her stop in her tracks.

"The TARDIS. You know, the blue police box that is bigger on the inside? If I show you my TARDIS, will you believe me then?"

She turned, her teary eyes asking the question she couldn't utter: _Why are you doing this to me?_

"You don't have to believe me. All I'm asking for is a chance to try and prove that I'm telling the truth."

"Why?" The man claiming to be the Doctor gave her a questioning look, so she explained herself further. "Why are you trying so hard to make me believe you? Why is it so important to you?"

He didn't respond immediately, probably considering how to phrase his answer.

"The truth?" he finally asked and Amy gave a nod. "Because of this." He presented her with a small leather case. It contained a single piece of paper which read:

_Find Amelia Pond.  
(Leadworth, 2010)_

Amy stared at the paper in her hands. There was something so familiar about it. She looked up, about to say something, but the man in the trench coat was already walking away.

"Wait!" she called and ran after him. She cursed herself for making it so easy on him. He was probably doing this on purpose, knowing that she would come after him.

As she rounded the corner to a small alley he had vanished in, she came to a halt. The blue police box, standing this time – not lying on its side like the night Amy had first seen it.

The man claiming to be the Doctor entered the door, leaving it wide open for her to follow. And she did. All those years she had wondered how it looked on the inside. How could she resist now she had the chance to find out?

So she passed through the door and stared in amazement at the vast room opening up to her. In the middle was a plateau with round controls where he stood.

"Bigger on the inside," he told her, watching how she took in every detail of the scenery.

Amy wondered how she was not more surprised about the fact that this small blue box contained so much space. But it felt not entirely new to her, just like the paper in her hand.

As her thoughts came back to what she was holding, she remembered again what she had wanted to say before. She came up towards him and held the leather case to his face.

"This is psychic paper. I know how it works. It shows me what you want me to see."

He gave a surprised smile. "So you know already how it works?"

"Yes. And that's how I know you could be easily manipulating me with this. I don't know why you've come for me and what you hope to gain by bringing me along, but you better tell me now, because you are not the Doctor. You might be some other guy travelling around in a blue box, but you are certainly not the Doctor."

His face had become serious again. "I told you, I regenerate. Every time I die, I change into a whole new body. Of course I look different. It wouldn't be the first time, anyway. In my 900 years in this universe I regenerated nine times already. Also there are no others travelling around in blue boxes; because firstly, no other machine like the TARDIS would constantly have the shape of a police box from England of the 1960s, and secondly, I'm the last of my kind."

"Yeah right," She rolled her eyes.

"You really don't believe me."

"You don't really have something to prove that what you're telling me is true, have you?"

"So you easily believe that there are other Timelords flying around in blue boxes. But you won't believe me that I'm 907 years old, regenerate into a new body when I'm about to die, and am in fact the last of the Timelords?"

Amy didn't know what to say. Actually, she wasn't sure anymore what she could and what she couldn't believe. But he had hit a nerve. What he had just told her, reminded her of something. She just had to remember it. It had to be somewhere in her brain…

_Very old, and very kind, and the very last of his kind. Sound a bit familiar?_

Amy blinked, confused. Those were her words. She had used them, but when? It was so hard to remember it. The memories were buried deep down in her brain, not easily to recover. But she had to try. It was important, she felt it.

_A sea of stars. A homeless nation on a ship, sailing through it. A choice between protesting and forgetting. A poor creature, trapped and tortured. Starship UK, built around a starwhale. The last starwhale that had volunteered to take the crying children and their families away from the burning earth._

When she looked up again, it was like she was looking through whole new eyes.

"It's you. It really _is_ you." She wrapped her arms around the Doctors neck and pulled him into a close hug. Surprised, he first hesitated to join in, but then laid his hands on her back.

Amy was still processing all the memories that returned to her. She had travelled with the Doctor. He had returned after all, even though twelve years later and not after fiver minutes like he had planned. He had shown her the universe, and Rory had been there as well. But then the Pandorica had opened and the exploding TARDIS had caused the whole universe to collapse. The Doctor had prevented that from happening by initiating a second Big Bang, but therefore had to leave the universe and it had been like he had never come back after she had first met him in her garden. And yet here he was again. That man. That impossible man!

"You came back," she whispered.

"I did."

"But…" – Amy pulled out of the hug to look at him again – "…how did you manage it? How did you come back from outside the universe?"

"Sorry?" He had no clue what she was talking about. Her enthusiasm faded and she stepped backwards. The Doctor gave a sigh.

"Amy… in a way you were right. I'm not the Doctor you know. Not now, anyway. In fact I've never met you before today."

She stared in disbelieve, trying to process the information he just had given her. "You never met me? But…"

"I'm a time traveller, remember? I don't always meet people in the right order. The Doctor you've met is probably a future version of me – maybe my next regeneration, but maybe even my thirteenth regeneration."

"But you came here, looking for me. Why would you do that?"

"I received the message on my psychic paper to come here and look for you. The one I showed you before."

"You also receive messages on your psychic paper?" He nodded. "But who would send you here and why?"

"I don't know." The Doctor leaned back against the console and ruffled his hair with his left hand. When he was done it stood off in every direction.

"So, what do we do now?" Amy asked. Remembering that she wasn't actually travelling with the Doctor – not with this version anyway – she corrected herself, "I mean, what are you gonna do?"

"Well, what I always do: put in a date and a place, pull a lever and off I go. – You want to come?"

Amy hesitated. "But… is that right. I mean, should that really be happening. When I first met you, you didn't know me. My name didn't ring any bells with you, if I go off with you now that'll change, wouldn't it?"

"I already know your name now. It's too late to turn back. Our feet are already wet, so why not dive head-first into the water?" He gave her a smile.

"But, what about my past? It'll change, right? And then I will have never met you and even this won't have happened like it has, because I won't remember you and…" Amy broke off as the Doctor gave her an amused look. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"Not really, no."

She put a hand to her head. "All this stuff with time travel and messing with my timeline is making my brain go fuzzy…"

The Doctor stepped closer towards her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, nothing in your past is going to change. I'll take care of that."

She gave him a curious look. "You can do that?"

His face broke into a grin again. "Sure I can. I'm a timelord." And she couldn't help but laughing equally.

"Well then, where do you want to go?" the Doctor asked and turned towards the consol.

Amy took the place to his left. "Why don't you surprise me, Doctor? If I remember correctly, you're always good for surprises."

He looked at her, a grin spreading over his face. She smiled back and they did break eye contact for a while, not even as the Doctor pulled a lever and the TARDIS rocked into gear.


	2. Part II: Uncovered

**A/N:** _I'm truely and deeply sorry. I should've warned you all that I'm absolutely terrible with updating. I just write whenever I feel like it and while sometimes I can be totally into continueing a story, at other times I have no ideas at all and but it aside. Happened after one and a half chapters in this case. But I finally am done with editing, so here you go._

_Thank you all for the reviews, favourites and follows. It's really great to see a positive response to my writing and I hope you enjoy the second chapter as well._

* * *

**Part II: Uncovered**

There was a sudden heave and Amy was thrown against the controls, a sound of surprise escaping from her lips. She held on tight as the TARDIS continued rocking through time and space and the Doctor whirled around the controls, pushing all kinds of buttons and pulling levers.

"Erm, Doctor?" Amy gasped between two shakes. "Is it supposed to do that?"

The Doctor smashed a hammer onto the controls right in front of her and she jerked backwards as it rang like a bell. "We might be having a little trouble with landing, but it should be over soon," he answered, moving onto the other side of the round controls.

"And when will that be?"

"Oh, about…" – he pulled one last lever and the engines rocked into such a sudden stop, Amy was pushed forward onto the controls again – "…now."

"I don't remember travelling with you was so uncomfortable," she muttered.

"What?" The Doctor looked up at her.

"What?" she replied innocently, meeting his questioning gaze. "Oh nothing, nothing," she waved it off. "So, where are we?"

For a moment he looked sceptical, then that expression faded and he smiled. "Klom."

"Klom?" Amy echoed.

"Twin-planet of Raxacoricofallapatorius; it's supposed to have a really great rollercoaster I heard, thought we could try it out."

"We've come here for a rollercoaster? Don't you think we've had enough rocking about just now?" The Doctor ignored her sceptical face while initiating an atmosphere check.

"Also, what kind of a name is 'Klom'?" she continued, leaning against the controls with crossed arms. Somehow she had imagined her first trip with the Doctor a bit more… spectacular. Like the crash of the Byzanthium – minus the Weeping Angels maybe.

"Be more open minded, Amelia. That's what it's all about," he replied and moved over to the door. "But now: plenty of air for us to breath." His hand rested on the handle, ready to step outside into the new world.

She pulled a face but came round the controls and down to where he awaited her, smiling broadly. "Okay then," she gave in. "Let's climb Klom."

The Doctor gave her a questioning look.

"That was a bad wordplay, I know."

"I'm not sure that even was a wordplay…"

"Shut up and open that door!" she commanded. He gave a shrug with his head tilting to his right and pulled the handle.

Amy stepped outside and was taken by surprise. She wasn't sure what she had expected from a planet with the dull name "Klom", but certainly not what was presenting itself to her now.

The air was warm like a summer's night, almost a bit sticky after the well-tempered insides of the TARDIS. Ahead of her a road was stretching out, lined by tall buildings glowing in shades of yellow and orange. She craned her neck upwards to follow the shapes climbing into the deep blue sky. They actually didn't look like they were built, but more like they had grown out of the ground like plants. The forms of the houses splitting up and spreading out like branches had Amy wondering what held them together, so they didn't simply fall apart.

She turned sideways to find the TARDIS had landed at the edge of this magical city. There were a few more buildings behind her, the rest of their surroundings vanished in the darkness.

Shuffling her feet around a bit more Amy became aware of the soft ground she was standing on. She knew that feeling of layers of tiny grains: sand. It was a lighter colour than the buildings she figured on a closer look, but she couldn't be entirely sure as it reflected the glowing light that filled the salty air.

Amy laughed. This strange world filled her with amazement and joy. She looked at the Doctor who still leaned in the doorway of the TARDIS. He must have stood there the whole time, watching as she took in their new surroundings.

"Do you smell that?" she asked, almost tasting the salt on her tongue as she took a deep breath. "The sea must be close!" And without waiting for his reaction, she turned to stride off looking for it.

"Amelia, what are you doing?" the Doctor asked, before she had taken more than a few steps.

Stopping and looking back at him, she asked: "What do you think I'm doing? What does it look like?"

He stepped out of the doorframe, shut the door and slowly walked towards her. "When travelling with me, there are certain rules to be followed. For example, rule number one: Don't wander off."

"I wasn't wandering off, I was taking the lead."

"No, that's not… that's not how it works. _I_ take the lead."

"Oh, and which rule is that?"

"That's common sense." She gave him a questioning look. "Time travel is a tricky thing. I have more experience and know how to make sure we don't mix up the course of events too much."

"Alright then," Amy said impatiently. "Lead me through the sandy streets of Klom; and forget about the rollercoaster, I want to hit the beach."

"Actually… this isn't Klom," the Doctor stated.

"It's not?"

"No."

"But you said…"

"Yeah, I slightly miscalculate when steering the TARDIS," he admitted.

Amy looked up and down the empty streets between the entwined branches of the rock houses and into the bluish darkness to her left.

"So we're not on glorious Klom?" she asked then.

"Seriously Amelia, have a bit more respect."

"Okay, no more klomsy wordplays – from now on."

The Doctor started walking the way Amy had intended to head down before. She took another look around before coming after him.

"So, if we're not on Klom, where exactly _are_ we?"

He wandered on, turning his head in every direction, sniffing and tasting the air and she found herself wondering what that was about.

"I'd say it's the… 78th century – in human terms – and we're in… Aqualorious, the human colony farthest away from Earth."

"Aqualorious," Amy repeated, turning her head in every direction in search of a sign where the Doctor must've read of that name. But she found none. "What kind of a name is Aqualorious?"

"I admit the colonisers where a bit full of themselves." He shrugged and continued down the road. She caught up to him, but still kept a watch out for any clue that could've helped him determining their location.

"How did you do that?" she asked after a while.

"Do what?"

"You could tell where we are by just taking a look around."

"That's who I am. Every place at any time has its special smell, taste, it's very own feel to it. And I can see it, I can feel how this place whirls through space."

Amy watched speechless as he rested his hands on a wall of one of the houses. Until now she had always thought the Doctor had a vast knowledge of the history of the universe and learned the time and place they'd landed from scans of the TARDIS. But there was more to him. What else could this Time Lord see and feel that she couldn't?

"Rockcoral," he exclaimed and ripped her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"The houses," he explained. "They are made of rockcoral. Well, I say made, grown would be a more appropriate. You see, rockcoral is a special sort of coral that turns – once fully grown – into hollow forms of rock. The outer layers harden up and the insides die and rot away."

"And how long does it take until they're fully grown?" Amy asked. "I mean they're pretty tall."

"Ten to twenty years maybe – depends what sort you have. Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Fascinating they would wait so long for their houses to be ready." He gave her an amused look. "I mean seriously, twenty years until they've grown and then you've got what? The outer walls? That's not much." There was no denying it, so the Doctor just shrugged.

"How did they get them here anyway?" she continued. "Don't corals usually grow under water?"

"That is indeed a very good question, Amelia!" His voice sparked with excitement. "And I think you're close to the answer."

Confusion showed on her face. "What do you mean?"

"Before, you said that the sea must be close. Now look at this place; don't just see, observe. What do you notice?"

"I don't know." She looked around. "There's not much to see; just sand and the coral-houses."

"Exactly!" the Doctor exclaimed as if she had made a good point, but she still didn't understand what he was going on about. "The sand, think about it. Where do you usually find sand in such huge amounts?"

"Don't know, the desert?" was all she could offer. "But we're not in the desert, are we?"

"No, we're not. It's far too warm for a night in the desert and the air is far too wet and salty. So where else could we be?"

"Er, the beach?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "But no one builds a city on a beach." With his fingers he ran through his hair again and she felt at a loss. "Think about it, Amelia. A city in the sand, the houses grown out of rockcorals, the smell of the sea in the air – what does that mean?"

"I don't know!"

"The sea used to be _here_!"

"Here?" she echoed. "You mean in this place, where we stand now? _They dried out the sea?_"

"Not the entire sea, just this place." It was visible in Amy's face that she still had difficulties to follow up. Meanwhile the Doctor was bursting with excitement and couldn't stand still. "In a way it's indicated in the name: Aqualorious, aqua, water… oh, this is brilliant!"

"What is it? I still don't get it, Doctor." He stopped pacing and turned towards her.

"The water, Amelia, where's the water?" But she could just shrug in confusion. So he took her by her shoulders and made her turn sideways. There she stood facing the dark a few houses away, the Doctor standing right behind her, his hands still on her shoulders.

"You mean it's in the darkness over there?"

"No." As he raptly stretched his answer, the penny dropped.

"The darkness _is_ the water," Amy whispered in awe. Then her head automatically tilted upwards to look at the starless sky – or what she had thought was the sky.

Leaning over her shoulder, he murmured into her ear: "Yes, up there, too."

"Wow," she gasped. "We're under water." Carefully treading, she made her way towards the darkness. She didn't even notice how his hands slid off her shoulders and he kept his distance, she was too mesmerised. How far beneath the sea level they had to be.

She reached the spot where the water was held back by an invisible barrier and held out her hand – yet she did not dare to touch it. The Doctor stepped beside her.

"Fascinating, isn't it? Tons and tons of water and all that keeps them from crashing in on us is this invisible barrier," he said.

"But it's safe, isn't it? I mean, you can't walk through it, like in Star Wars or something?"

"No, you can't walk through it – you'd be carried away from the currents out there. But what is Star Wars?"

"Oh, just a science fiction film. Forget about it," she said casually.

"Is that the one with Mister Spock?"

"No, that's Star Trek. How do you know about Mister Spock?" He shrugged.

"Well, I just heard of it – somewhere."

They fell silent and watched the dark blue sea swirling behind the barrier. The smile had returned to Amy's face as they stood there side by side in a bubble at the ground of a huge ocean.

* * *

**A/N:** _The chapter title is supposed to be a play on words, because the Doctor and Amy are uncovering things about the strange place they've landed in and also the sand they're walking on isn't covered by the sea as it should be. Rubbish, I know, I rathe should've called it the chapter of rubbish wordplays - or klomsy wordplays like I've started to call it._

_Also I thought it would make more sense to have the Doctor continually call Amy "Amelia", because she hasn't told him that she's going by Amy now. She will eventually, I think. But before that there are other things to happen - things I yet have to come up with._

_By the way: Should I bring in some trouble for Aqualorious like the airshields leaking, so the Doctor has to save the day or should it be one of the calmer trips we don't see in the TV series where things don't go wrong for once? What do you think?_

_And if there is anything else you think should be in this fic, let me know and I'll see what I can do._

_See you - hopefully soon - with chapter 3._

_~ Liz_


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